“Just for a few weeks.”
“Oh yeah?” I spooned a mouthful of granola into my mouth. “Can I come?”
Phoebe’s spoon paused mid-air. “Of course, but don’t you have to work?”
“I quit last night,” I answered, not wanting to go any deeper into the conversation. I loved my old boss and I loved being a software architect for my firm, and I studied hard in computer science to have this life, but my new boss was a wanker.
“You quit? You loved your job!”
“I did, yes. But the new boss was a little… intrusive,” I answered, thinking back to his inappropriate behavior last night. After our ten o’clock meeting, I was sitting back at my desk when he approached me. Aside from the fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes off my breasts didn’t help, but then he had to go and do something inappropriate. I stood from my seat after he was asking me questions, with my papers in hand ready to take myself to the copy room, when he slid his hand over my ass. That was enough to make me snap. I turned in my heels and threw the papers at his face, with the words, “I quit,” and “you pig,” thrown in there somewhere amongst that. If that wasn’t bad enough, he looked shocked, like how dare I stand up to him. I was all too familiar with what goes on in an abuser’s mind, though, that’s what was dangerous about it. They actually thought they were doing nothing wrong.
“Intrusive?” Phoebe asked, eyes slanting and her ‘protect-a-friend’ barrier coming up. I love her and her strength. I could only hope that one day I can be as strong as her.
I shook my head. “It’s okay, Phoebe. I’ll find another.”
“Okay, well, you can come with! I have to warn you, though…” she began.
Only to be cut off by a laughing Melissa. “Ha, warn her? Oh honey, you can’t just warn people about your family. They would need at least a year just to warm up to the idea of them.”
“Thanks for that, Mel. Seriously,” Phoebe said, narrowing her stare on Melissa. “As I was saying, my family are a little… different.”
“They’re in a motorcycle club, yeah?”
She nodded her head. “Yes, they are. They’re a little rough around the edges, and may hit on you here and there. I’ll stop that the best I can, though.”
“It’s okay. I know all about pushy men. I’ll be fine. I’m coming.”
Her eyes faltered, her mouth opening for a split second like she was pondering on whether she should ask me to enlighten her about that statement, but in true Phoebe fashion, she didn’t dig. It was exactly why I felt so comfortable with her and why when I did finally feel like opening my clam shell, she would be the first person to see my stained pearls.
“All right! Let’s go.”
It took us forty-four hours to get to Westbeach. I was a little on the cranky side because I’d never been a fan of traveling, but I was glad that we were finally there nonetheless.
“Wake up, bitches! We’re here!” Phoebe beamed from the driver’s seat.
Both Melissa and I tried to take turns with driving, but she had nothing of it. The girl actually loved being behind the wheel far too much.
“We just need to stop off at Sinsation and then we can head to my house.”
“You have a house here?” I asked, glancing out the windows, watching all the street lights passing us by.
“I did as a child. Where do you think I kept all my cars,” she answered with a small smirk.
“I guess I never thought of that,” I answered, running my hands through my hair. Phoebe was a car fanatic. One would think coming from an MC family she’d share the same passion for bikes, but that wasn’t the case here. She had a collection of cars that she boasted about on a daily basis, her eyes flashing with passion and love. I hoped that one day she could mix her career with her passion.
We pulled up to a huge building. The walls were stroked in gloss black and the doors shining a bright blood red with Sinsation written in red over the top of the door.
“What kind of bar did you say this was?” I asked, pulling my hair into a ponytail and rounding the car to make my way beside Phoebe.
“A swingers’ bar or sex bar. I need a drink,” Melissa answered, walking toward the door.
The initial thought that crossed my mind was… gross. The second one was that I could do with a drink. I was too tired to care if I was sitting on a seat that had previously had a bare ass pushing up against it.
Nope, don’t go there, Meadow.
Walking into the bar, nothing was out of the ordinary. I think my imagination had more fire. It looked like an average bar, only more discreet. There were booths that lined down the edges with the bar sitting in the middle.